News reports on the number of sickened and dead, in what is quickly becoming one of the largest E. coli outbreaks that I have seen in nearly two decades of litigating E. coli outbreaks, have varied. As of this morning, the press is reporting that the latest victim was an 84-year-old woman, who died on Saturday in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein. This follows the death of an 87-year-old woman in the early hours of Saturday morning in Hamburg. On Thursday night a 38-year-old woman died from Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome (HUS). As many as six other women (a total of nine) have died in the last week.

Other reports have nearly 300 suffering from HUS. In addition, as many as 1,000 have been hospitalized with E. coli according to other press reports. Cases have also been reported in Britain, Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden and Denmark.

German officials have said they found 3 cucumbers from Spain with the bacterium, and they are currently probing whether the cucumbers were contaminated with E. coli when they were shipped from southern Spain, or whether they went bad during shipment or while being handled in Germany.

Bill Marler is an accomplished personal injury lawyer and national expert on foodborne illness litigation. He began representing victims of foodborne illness in 1993, when he represented Brianne Kiner, the most seriously injured survivor of the Jack in the Box E. coli O157:H7 outbreak, resulting in her landmark $15.6 million settlement. Marler founded Food Safety News in 2009.

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Cucumbers don’t get E.coli all by their itty bitty vegetable selves… It has to do with how our food is being produced within the fields, in processing, and transport. It doesn’t matter what country it’s from, the point is that mass produced, globalized corporate food = E.coli (among other dangers)….
We need to get beyond the blame game and start demanding local, small, happy (E.coli free) food…

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I have read that 4 cucumbers were contaminated in the Hamburg market, 3 originally from spain, but the fourth originally from holland. Is that correct?

About Bill Marler

Bill Marler is an accomplished personal injury and products liability attorney. He began litigating foodborne illness cases in 1993, when he represented Brianne Kiner, the most seriously injured survivor of the Jack in the Box E. coli O157:H7 outbreak.